(a) Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to an albada finder, and more specifically to a super-compact finder incorporating a range finder for use with compact cameras.
(b) Description of the Prior Art:
As is already known to those skilled in the art, an albada finder comprises a first concave lens component, a second concave lens component and a third convex lens component as well as a field mask formed on said convex lens component and a reflecting surface formed on the concave surface of said concave lens component to reflect the rays coming from said field mask, whereby an image of said field mask is formed within the visual field of the albada finder with the rays coming from said field mask and reflected on said reflecting surface. In order to incorporate such an albada finder with a range finder, there have conventionally been available two methods. One method is to arrange a half mirror between the first and second lens component for reflecting the rays coming from the range finder lens system toward the eyepiece of the albada finder. The other method is to arrange a half mirror between the second and third lens component for the same purpose. Of these two methods, the former has a defect that the albada finder is designed unavoidably as a large lens system since the rays pass through higher portions of the first and second lens component, thereby making it necessary to reserve a wide space between the first and second lens component.
The latter method also has a defect that the image of the field mask is unavoidably darkened though it allows the rays to pass through lower portions of the second and third lens components, thereby requiring no wide space between these two lenses.